Clash of the Tech Titans: Oracle Sues Google

Business software giant Oracle has filed suit
against Google over its popular mobile operating system, Android. In
Silicon Valley, copyright and patent infringement suits are a dime a
dozen. But rarely do deep-pocketed companies like Oracle mount such
aggressive (and inevitably protracted) suits against Google. Here's what
technology analysts and bloggers are saying about the suit:

What's This All About?Dan Goodin
at The Register explains: "The complaint asserts seven patents to
various technologies associated with Java, in addition to copyrighted
code, documentation, specifications, libraries, and other materials that
comprise the platform. Attorneys said the intellectual property is
infringed by various Java applications that make up the Android stack
and run on a Java-based object-oriented application framework."

What Does Oracle Want? "Oracle's motivation was probably Android's recent success in the smartphone market," writes James Niccolai
at Computer World. "Oracle alleges that Google was aware of its patents
and 'willfully and deliberately' infringed them. It also says Google
hired some of Sun's Java engineers. It wants the court to block the
alleged infringement and award it damages."

An Epic Clash of the Titans, writes Sam Gustin
at Daily Finance: "The conflict could shape up to be a massive battle
between two of Silicon Valley's richest and most powerful companies.
Google, of course, is a $120 billion behemoth that just spent $100
million to defend itself against Viacom -- a case which continues.
And the search giant is sitting on a cash hoard of $26.4 billion.
Oracle is a $115 billion company with cash reserves of $10 billion. And
Ellison, of course, is one of the richest men in the world, personally
worth about $30 billion, give or take a few billion. Needless to say,
both sides can afford a protracted legal battle. On the other hand, it's
entirely possible that the case could be settled out of court -- and if
Oracle's claims are strong, Google may be forced to pay a non-trivial
amount."

This Is Definitely Oracle's Style, says Rob Enderle,
a Silicon Valley tech analyst: "I think this showcases a new tougher
era for Java and this is something that Google likely should have
anticipated because Oracle is aggressive about protecting its patents.
It also suggests that any other company that is using this stuff without
a license is likely to get a call from Larry's lawyers."

Google Leaders Were Deeply Involved With Java, notes Tom Krazit
at CNET: "Google CEO Eric Schmidt led the team that developed Java at
Sun prior to becoming CEO of Novell, and later Google in 2001. Urs
Hölzle, senior vice president of operations and a Google Fellow, also
played a significant role in Java's development in the 1990s, and
apparently other Sun engineers have joined Google in the intervening
years."